A friend from class asked me the other day about my eyebrow. Out of habit, I reeled off the same speech I always give to the curious: “When I was eight, I had a cyst removed from my right eyebrow in order to prevent it from permanently shutting my eyelid and causing me to go blind in that eye.” This got me thinking, though. What exactly happened almost fourteen years ago? What exactly was growing on my face? The best way to start is with a medical definition: According to Stanford School of Medicine, a pilomatrixoma is a slow-growing, usually non-cancerous, skin tumor of the hair follicle. In other words, it is a cyst.
My Mimi was the first to notice the small bump on my eyebrow. Scratch that, I admittedly had noticed it, but thought nothing of it at that time so I didn’t tell my parents. An appointment was made, the bump was examined, and the surgery date was set. I faintly recall the details surrounding the eye appointment that revealed I had a cyst on my right eyebrow. One thing I do remember, though, was the word “surgery”. At eight years old, I was terrified. What does this mean? Will it hurt? Will I have a scar? So many questions that, luckily, the doctor could provide answers. Another thing that I do remember is that Dr. Gold initially called it a “cyst”, instead of the previously mentioned “tumor”, so that immediately settled my mind.
Eventually, the day of the surgery came. I can vividly picture my dad waking me up on June 18, 2008 for an early morning operation, tears immediately swelling in my eyes due to the wave of uncertainty that crashed over me. During the operation, Dr. Gold discovered that the cyst had calcified on my brow bone, so incisions were made above and below my eyebrow in order to fully remove it. I did not wake up in time to see it, but my parents described the cyst as a “rock that looked a little bigger than a jellybean with hair sticking out of it.” Gross, but kinda cool.
Cream after cream, the doctor prescribed practically everything in the book that promotes growth of hair, so as to regrow the recently removed hair follicles on my brow. Nothing worked. Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” No matter what you see or think that others see as an imperfection, God made each of us perfectly and wonderfully in his eyes. This was hard to understand at such a young age when I became frustrated that I may never have two full eyebrows again and that I would always look different from everyone else. I have realized, though, that our “imperfections” are what make us unique and that it is okay to not look like everyone else. I have grown to love my scar, and I do not mind the questions about what happened at all. Funny enough, people’s first impression is that I purposely cut my eyebrow as a stylistic choice! I guess it is in some ways, but I like to think that it makes me, me. It also doubles as a great conversation starter sometimes, too!
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XOXO,
Taylor Mae
P.S.
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